


Prelude to Romantic Flight

by ArtemisRae



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen, idk it worked in my head, not really beta'd so don't get your hopes up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 11:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3117887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisRae/pseuds/ArtemisRae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The groundskeeper has a secret. Astrid is determined to find out what.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prelude to Romantic Flight

**Author's Note:**

> Me and my lovely beta juxtaposie exchanged a bunch of au prompts to try and get some writing done. She gave me a "Hogwarts Teachers AU" and then this happened.

Astrid was distracted all through her class with the third year Hufflepuffs - a problem, since they were outside in a field where she’d baited some Red Caps, and the students kept stumbling into the holes where they were laying. As the children shrieked and shouted directions at one another, she couldn't keep her eyes away from the groundskeeper’s hut, an innocuous dot across the lawn.

Haddock had caught her interest he last couple days. She’d spied him coming in late to breakfast yesterday, and noticed he’d been limping. Then yesterday at dinner she had noticed that he had gone back for seconds and thirds, all of fish, cleaning his plate each time.

He’d always been an eccentric fellow - never a great wizard, too obsessed with muggle contraptions, made friends with more dangerous creatures than fellow students - but he was always kind and funny, and Astrid had always thought he was something of an open book. He puttered around the school, occasionally caused explosions with his experiments, and took anxious and bullied children under his wing.

Now he’d put up walls, folded in on himself. He was missing meals, students had been asking after him, and Astrid had noticed that the grass on the Quidditch pitch was overgrown. And, as Astrid studied his little cabin across the lawn, she couldn't help noticing that it was boarded up tight even in the spring time sunshine. Unwelcome to visitors.

Enough was enough. When the bell rang she sent the children back to the castle, then strode purposefully towards the hut. As she neared, she could hear him talking to somebody. Astrid readied her wand; could he be harboring a fugitive?

She pounded on the front door. “Come out here Haddock! Open up or I’ll blow in the door!”

The door creaked open; Hiccup’s face peered around the corner. He looked terrified. “Astrid! I mean, Professor Hofferson, do you need -” Like a snake, he slide around the door without giving her a glimpse inside and shut it firmly, pressing his back against it. “Do you need something? Is there some kind of emergency? Hard to imagine an emergency our capable defense against the dark arts teacher can’t -”

“You’re acting weird.” she blurted out, cutting him off. Her wand was at her side, though still ready. “Even weirder than usual.”

“I didn’t know I was weird,” he deadpanned, but visibly shrunk back when she stepped up onto the stoop and raised her wand.

Everyone knew the story behind Astrid Hofferson’s appointment of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher - she’d been an Auror, and a damn good one, until -

Well, that didn’t matter now. Just because her body couldn’t always keep up anymore didn’t mean that her instincts weren’t still as good as they ever were, and Haddock was hiding something. She opened her mouth, but instead of the vague threat she’d intended to make, a deathly, terrifying roar rang out.

Everything happened so quickly - she pushed past Hiccup into the house, and was immediately greeted with a pair of green eyes, and flashing, white teeth. A scream crawled her up throat before she clamped it down, raising her wand instead. Her mind raced - dragons were tough to stun, but maybe if Haddock wasn’t totally useless at them they could do the spell together -

And then Hiccup was moving in between them, shouting frantically. “Stop! Stop! You’re scaring him!”

“ _I’m_ scaring _him_?!” She asked incredulously. A part of her had always known that Haddock was crazy, but this went beyond anything she’d ever dreamed up - he wasn’t harboring a fugitive, he was harboring -

“Yes, him.” Hiccup said firmly, putting a hand on her wand arm and forcing it to her side. “He’s a Scandinavian Night Fury, and his name is Toothless.”

She gaped.

“All right Haddock.” She exhaled a breath, her eyes never leaving the dragon’s face. He seemed calm though, and Hiccup was so relaxed that she felt her own muscles start to decompress in turn. “You have ten seconds to explain to me how and why you’re hiding one of the rarest of dragon species on Hogwarts grounds.”


End file.
